Asean ministers ok principles for rights of migrant workers

Senior officials and ministers of Asean member-nations have finally agreed on the general principles for the protection of the rights of migrant workers across the region.

Ambassador Victoriano Lecaros, spokesperson for the 12th Asean Summit, said the precepts for the Cebu Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers have been reached during the opening of the event at the Shangri-La Mactan Hotel and Resort Wednesday.

"(Asean) will be a community that will recognize the indispensable contribution of migrant workers and will pledge to protect them," said Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto G. Romulo, chairman of the ASEAN Standing Committee, in a statement read by Lecaros after that initial meeting.

The proposed declaration calls for equal wages and employment conditions for migrant workers, as well as decent housing and protection from illegal recruitment, trafficking and prostitution.

It also aims to aid migrant workers from any Asean member-country that may be caught in a conflict outside the region.

In a press conference at the Cebu International Convention Center yesterday, Lecaros said there was no major disagreements among Asean leaders when they meet to deliberate on principles that would make up for the declaration of migrant workers' rights in the region.

Being one of the biggest exporters of workers in the region, Lecaros said the Philippines would surely benefit from the declaration, which would be signed by the Asean leaders or heads of state during the culmination of the summit.

Meanwhile, the labor federation Alyansa sa Mamumuo sa Sugbo-Kilusang Mayo Uno dismissed the proposed declaration on Asean migrant workers as an attempt to degrade further the plight of overseas Filipino workers.

The group doubted that the declaration, which has a provision to have equal salaries among migrant workers in the region, would lead to better pay for the country's increasing number of OFWs. - Wenna A. Berondo and Jasmin R. Uy/RAE